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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Outliers & the 10,000 Hour Rule - Chapter 2

Readers have found the ideas that Gladwell raises in chapter two of Outliers quiet fascinating. In particular, they have been drawn to Gladwell’s discussion of the “10,000 hour rule,” that is, the notion that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice for a person to gain a truly remarkable mastery of a given skill. In other words, people would have to work on perfecting their skills for approximately 20 hours a week over the course of 10 years in order to acquire and display exceptional degrees of expertise.

Gladwell cites the early careers of computer whizzes Bill Joy and Bill Gates and The Beatles as examples of people who had achieved success in large part because they had achieved their 10,000 hours of practice. It’s worth noting that those who gain those 10,000 hours of practice have unique resources and vital networks of support and opportunity.

What’s a useful or creative way that we could start thinking about the 10,000 hour rule or at least something comparable in terms of an extended commitment to a field of study or talent here at SIUE? Is something comparable (hundreds of hours as opposed to ten thousand) or even possible given the demands and perhaps distractions of a general college education?

A few answers from Haley Scholars

The 10,000 hour rule for something you want to excel in could be close to impossible now. With school work & other important aspects in your life , it would be hard to commit to just one thing. In free time it would be possible , but to get to that expertise level it could take longer than expected. --T.W.

It is possible to achieve these hours if the student is committed, but as college students, there are so many things you have to prioritize. --J.C.

The examples given in the book show that most of the people who mastered their subject in their twenties started very young. If Siue students started now, they wouldn't finish until their early thirties and most people would have graduated, gotten jobs and started raising children by then. This is why i don't think 10,000 hours is realistic for most people. --J.O.

I believe that the 10,000 Hour Rule is unrealistic for me personally as a college student. There are so many things in my life that I have to put my time into. Maybe once I have my career that will be the one thing that I focus on. --R.C.

I believe the 10,000 hour rule is plausible, but only for a select group of people. --A.F.

19 comments:

Kellsey H
said...

I feel as though the 10,000 rule is not able to be achieved by college students. There is simply too much demanded of them. They have to worry about homework, studying, work, and other activities and thus are unable to focus all of their attention on only one in particular.

When talking about classes and sports, it seems impossible to be able to follow the 10,000 hour rule. Comparing it to my sport-track-it would be more realistic to have a rule that had several hundred hours instead of 10,000. Even if it was only several hundred hours, it would still be very hard to complete.Deborrah B.

Practice makes perfect is the theme of this chapter. I agree with the others that 10,000 is not reasonable at this point in a college student's life. Students are expected to balance school work, a social life, and maintain personal health. If a student were to dedicate 10,000 hours to something, other aspects of their life would suffer. Each student should pick their own number of hours to dedicate themselves to something, depending on his or her schedule.

I think that the 10,000 rule becomes impossible after someone gets their first job. School and work takes up a lot of hours each day and even more hours each week, so the probability of someone between the ages of maybe 16-22 would have a lot of trouble. So I just don't think it's a realistic goal for the average student.

I think the 10,000 rule is almost impossible for a college student to complete. In this chapter, every individual that completed the 10,000 hours started at a very young age and spent many many years to get there. College students are expected to study, do homework, maintain a social life, sleep, etc. there would not be enough time in the day to reach the the 10,000 rule. Sydney J.

As a college students, I think the 10,000 hour rule would be unattainable simply because of our schedules. Some people would say that the time taken to perfect a skill, 20 hours a week, could actually be spent studying socializing, or working. If someone does attempt to try the 10,000 hour rule, then the amount of effort they put towards other important things will slowly diminish.

I feel that if people studied under the 10,000 rule, many of them wouldn't follow through with it. It would be way too much on a particular subject. The work and determination to succeed would be too great even for the top scholars.

I don't think the 10,000 hour rule is realistic. Like everyone else is saying with the demands of a general college education as well as having other responsibilities, a student here at siue, or any other university for that matter, wouldn't have much success achieving that mastery level of a skill. I know I wouldn't be able to achieve it, between classes and working, I still have to factor in time for homework as well as my other priorities, and there would be no time spend 20 hours a week attempting to master a skill.

I do not believe that the 10,000 hour rule could work with college students. We have way too much going on to add in an extra 20 hours a week dedicated to perfecting another aspect of our lives. It would make the skill we were trying to attain less enjoyable and thus less worthwhile. Aliyah B.

The 10,000 rule is almost impossible, especially for college students. There is just so much going on in students' lives and a lot of us probably already feel like there isn't enough time in the day with the things going on now. Another reason why the 10,000 rule is nearly impossible is because most people in my generation tend to not be able to commit. I think students should just be given a challenge to set their own schedule/amount of time towards something they are dedicated to.DuAuna C.

The 10,000 hour rule is somewhat impossible in college, because we take several classes a semester and on top of having to balance our day to day lives, it is difficult to practice a particular thing for that amount of time.

I believe that maybe in some instances that working 10,000 hours may help someone master an art of some sort. But, for other people that isn't necessarily true. Some people may be fast learners and it may not even take a day for them to get the skill down packed.

I believe that the 10,000 rule is only obtainable if you start at a young age. Because most of the things learned in college is brand new to most students, and we are just now starting the experiences, the 10,000 rule is not able to be achieved by college students. Especially because students have so many things going on in their life, there is not time to devote so much time to perfecting one skill. Fiona H.

I believe the 10,000 hour rule is attainable but not for college students by that I mean you would have had to start these hours off as a child in order to complete them by the time you graduate college. To get them all done is in college is not impossible but will be extremely hard because you still have work, homework, study time, extracurricular activities, and the most important thing to sleep. Sierra L.

I believe the 10,000 rule is unattainable for students in college. Mainly because all student are not sure of what career they want to pursue and often jump from major to major. I feel this is a more realistic goal for someone who has started their career and can now work to improve their craft. Monet. E

I believe that anything is possible. But if the statement above is true then i believe this is a way to make someone an expert. I know that if you are talented and you work hard you can be successful, so the 10.000 hour rule would work, give or take some years. But i feel that even without talent you can become a "great" in any aspect if you put your time into it and practice right. There was an article i read two years ago which talked about a man experimenting with this rule using golf as his goal. This man hates golf but decided to use all of his time practicing the sport. He is not good at this all but that doesn't mean that his skills wont improve because he is putting in effort and practicing correctly. I know that no matter how many times you practice if you aren't practicing right you wont play right. So its not just the amount of time you devote, which i don't think it necessarily has to be 10,000 hours but i think its a combination of the amount of time and how well you practice.

The main theme of this chapter is that if you work hard at something you will achieve it. The 10,000 rule is not ideal for college students because they are expected to manage so many other things while also trying to have a social life, they should be allowed to pick their own number of hours.